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Nhlanhla Mbele
ZIMBABWE men’s basketball team failed to grab a ticket to the 2021 FIBA Africa Afro-Basketball Qualifiers after losing three of their four encounters at the FIBA AfroBasket pre-qualifiers at the City Sports Centre in Harare from 21 to 26 January.
Playing host to the games, people had high hopes that Zimbabwe would capitalise on home advantage.
Basketball Union of Zimbabwe Competitions Commission president Yesaya Ignatious said the competition was a success but the team’s performance was not what they expected.
“We got surprised by our teams’ performance. Not that we had no game plan but it’s not the results that we were expecting especially when we had the home advantage.
“Looking at Madagascar, the team was crafted since they were Under-16 and they have been playing together ever since. We were hoping to get a wild card but Madagascar have already qualified by virtue of being the top seeded team of the tournament,” said Ignatious.
Zimbabwe was thrashed 74-21 by Madagascar and managed to register a win against Zambia in their first encounter.
In the weekend fixtures, Zimbabwe was found wanting as they failed to register a win in all the games, losing to both Madagascar and Zambia.
The six-day tournament featured three teams, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Zambia. Team Madagascar was crowned champions in Group E and they will be joining Tunisia and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Group A.
ZIM BASKETBALL TEAM
Nathan Warikandwa, Tawanda Chitsinde, Wishes Kakomo, Tatenda Tswatswa, Agrippa Masvisvi, Munashe Makumbe, Tatenda Maturure, Benson Nyatanga, Everisto Pasipamire, Henry Chizah, Nyasha Zamani, Taurai Chitsinde, Dyvonne Pfachi and Warren Tegama.
Online Reporter